First construction of Imam Hussain Holy Shrine

In 65 A.H.,when al-Mukhtar al-Thaqaf was ruling Kufa, he called for taking revenge to the assassins of Imam Hussain
and his companions through sentencing them. After that, he began constructing the dome of Imam Hussain’s
shrine from bricks and gypsum.


The history of the holy shrine’s construction and its renovations goes back 14 centuries. Historians have stated that the building was initiated when the tribe of Banu Asad buried the bodies of the martyrs immediately after the Battle of al-Taff.
Imam Ali B. al-Hussain attending and participating this burial, informed Banu Asad that “Some people of this nation,
unbeknownst to the tyrants, made a covenant with Allah to collect these shattered bodies and bloodied corpses, making to them a lasting monument on the grave of the Master of Martyrs’.”